Bardhaman
Dot Com News Bureau
Burdwan, 03 Sep 04 :The much waited Bankura Damodar Railway (BDR) will
restart from 14th January 2005, informed Basudev Acharya,
MP & member of the rail board today at an exclusive
interview with bardhaman.com. He was in
the town to inaugurate & address a open session at
the 8th state conference of the union of the West Bengal
University Employees.

The BDR operated till late eighties when it was shut
down due to lack of passengers. The train once the only
lifeline connection between the Bankura & Burdwan
districts, was started by the British as a narrow gauge
railway. The lack of speed & modernisation took the
passenger off the trains before it was closed down. The
project was planned to be revived when Mamata Banerjee
was the railway minister at the NDA government. The
plans were to convert the track to a broad gauge one
& connect it with the Howrah Burdwan chord line near
Masagram to make it more attractive to the passengers
and hence economically viable. This will also reduce the
distance between Howrah & Bankura.

Acharya today also informed that the entire project
divided into three phases will be complete by the year
2007. "In the first phase, the trains will start
rolling from Bankura to Sonamukhi from 14th January
2005. The trains will ply between Raina & Bankura,
the erstwhile route of the BDR by the end of 2005 &
the entire project is scheduled to be complete by the
year 2007" described Acharya. He also informed that
train services will start at the much awaited Howrah -
Digha route before the puja. "The entire work has
been finished & awaiting the inspection &
clearance of the railway safety board, after which
regular train services will commence" informed
Acharya. He also informed that the Eklakhi - Balurghat
project will be completed by the end of this year.